Californication By The Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Ah, Hollywood; luxurious, exciting, sexy, free. Who wouldn’t want to move to California, enjoy the golden beaches of the West Coast, and explore everything else it has to offer? Let’s not forget the endless opportunities of fame and fortune. But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be; there’s a dark side. Crime and violence run rampid. Pornography and prostitution take advantage of those desperate to survive in the fast moving economy with its expensive lifestyle. What about deforestation, pollution, over-mining the world’s natural resources, and frequent, potentially traumatizing earthquakes? Oh, and want to become a big-shot hollywood celebrity? Say goodbye to your soul. In this paper we’re going to be taking a look at two very different songs …show more content…

The stance proves to be relatively ambiguous. While it initially seems to carry a pessimistic, and concerned ideology, the artists have actually said that the intended purpose wasn’t to abase or belittle California but rather to express patronage towards his hometown and its many wonders. However, both the lyrics and the visuals seem to overshadow that intent and do the exact opposite. Accompanied by a melancholy arrangement of instruments that sounds either dreamy and relaxing or pessimistic and moody depending how you interpret it, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ video portrays the controlling lure that Hollywood has over the people of California. It preys on people’s desire to acquire fame and fortune, by promising celebrity status and untold riches. What does it cost? Just your humanity. In the chorus the singer repeats “Dream of Californication”, which implies that people are willing to turn a blind eye on all the evil and continue to embrace the …show more content…

Well, apart from the not-so-subtle connection each video seems to have with a certain state on the West Coast of the United States, each video also attempts to mimic some sort of game. For starters, Perry’s video is a blatantly obvious recreation of the classic family board game, Candyland. Only instead of calling it Candyland, they decide to invent the ever so cumbersome portmanteau, “Candyfornia”, derived from the original name of the board game and their oh-so-beloved homeland. Eureka! The video itself however doesn’t do the best job at emulating this, but nobody’s really focused on anything but the whip-cream “bikinis on top” anyway, right? As for RHCP’s video, the comparison can be drawn to another kind of game. Due to the rising popularity of 3D generated video games at the time of the video’s release, RHCP uses an animation style which mimics the likes of these games to their advantage in developing the setting, themes, and ideas expressed in the

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